Can I claim the other half of the house?

ImACarer

I need some house ownership advice, although I appreciate that ultimately will need to speak to a solicitor.

I joint own a house with my ex-wife of which she lives in. She suffers from mental health and is going through processes for supported living and I need to buy her half of the house, that is not a problem, I can afford this. However, the mortgage has always been paid by myself as I was the only one working as she has been on long term sick since I have known her and before we bought the house.

Am I able to go to a solicitor/court and prove that all mortgage payments were from my own pockets in hope that I can get the other half of the house? Do not think that I am heartless by doing this because doing this will save a lot of issues for her supported living. She is happy to sign the house over to me now for free but in the eyes of housing benefit to pay for supported living this would be classed as asset deprivation. If it's done via the court this way then it will not be, however, I do not know if this is a thing I can do?

Any advise?
Cliff

AdrianC

How much equity is in the property?
You say she's your ex-wife. Did the divorce settlement not cover the financials of the property?

[Deleted User]

If you were married and registered as joint tenants then I would imagine that yes half the house is hers whether she paid the mortgage or not.

TBagpuss

The short anwer is no, you won't get the full hpuse just because you paid the mortgage.
On divorce, when a court is looking at what the settlement should be, they start by looking at an equal split of the assets and then have to cinsider whether that is fair, and if not, what would be a fair outcome.

The longer the maarige was, the more likely they are to gofor a striaght 50/50 split, regardless of who did what in terms of finacial and non-financial contributions when you were married.

in a very short marriage a court may take into account contributions, but this would mostly be things like lump sums paid for a deposit.

if the arrangemetn you had as a couple was that you worked and paid the mortgage and she stayedhome and looked after the houe, or stayed home beacuase she was ill, it is unlikely to be seen as fiar that that arrangemetn should be retrospetively changed to say that she now has to pay for that.

That said, if you and she have an agreement, you can submit an order reflecting that agreement to the court and it will be up to a Judge to decide whether or not to approve it.

If the eal was that she received a ower lump sum rather than nothing at all, that might be more acceptable - have you looked at how much she is allowed to have in savings and still receiv benefits? Are there other things such as furniture / a car that she will need? Maybe you could agree a limp sum which covers those things .

Also look at other assets - for instnace, if you have a pension, then an order giving her a small lump sum from the house + a pension share might allow you to reach a fair settlment that still enabales her to access the supported housing.

Ofcourse, if the issue is that if she has money she will be expected to pay towards the supported housing herself, then the appropriate thing to do is to pay her her fair sahre, and her her to use that money toeards her hpusing needs for as long as it lasts, just as would happen if she was buying or rented non-supported home.

ImACarer

AdrianC wrote: »

How much equity is in the property?
You say she's your ex-wife. Did the divorce settlement not cover the financials of the property?

We did a consent order that said house 50/50, but I was to pay the capital and she the interest but was thinking of the changing order because of the moving to supported living.

AdrianC

So you want to vary the divorce settlement purely to remove assets from your wife to allow her to claim means-tested benefits...?

I think you can guess how that's likely to be received.

ImACarer

TBagpuss wrote: »

The short answer is no, you won't get the full house just because you paid the mortgage.
On divorce, when a court is looking at what the settlement should be, they start by looking at an equal split of the assets and then have to consider whether that is fair, and if not, what would be a fair outcome.

The longer the marriage was, the more likely they are to go for a straight 50/50 split, regardless of who did what in terms of financial and non-financial contributions when you were married.

in a very short marriage, a court may take into account contributions, but this would mostly be things like lump sums paid for a deposit.

if the arrangement you had as a couple was that you worked and paid the mortgage and she stayed home and looked after the house, or stayed home because she was ill, it is unlikely to be seen as fiar that that arrangement should be retrospectively changed to say that she now has to pay for that.

That said, if you and she have an agreement, you can submit an order reflecting that agreement to the court and it will be up to a Judge to decide whether or not to approve it.

If the deal was that she received an ower lump sum rather than nothing at all, that might be more acceptable - have you looked at how much she is allowed to have in savings and still receive benefits? Are there other things such as furniture / a car that she will need? Maybe you could agree on a lump sum that covers those things.

Also look at other assets - for instance, if you have a pension, then an order giving her a small lump sum from the house + a pension share might allow you to reach a fair settlement that still enables her to access the supported housing.

Of course, if the issue is that if she has money she will be expected to pay towards the supported housing herself, then the appropriate thing to do is to pay her her fair share, and her her to use that money towards her housing needs for as long as it lasts, just as would happen if she was buying or rented non-supported home.

Thank you, she already had half of my pension it is just this now. I will speak to the solicitor and see if there is anything else he could suggest that I may have not thought about. Cheers.

Bexgrossman

ImACarer wrote: »

Thank you, she already had half of my pension it is just this now. I will speak to the solicitor and see if there is anything else he could suggest that I may have not thought about. Cheers.

You can ask her